TikTok heats up business opportunities for summer

TikTok, the leading destination for short-form mobile video, releases its TikTok Summer Trends and Insights report, based on a Commissioned Survey by Teluna in January 2023. The report spotlights users’ summer trends through an analysis of TikTok content, spotting users’ high engagement emanating from the excitement for the summer season across various content, tracking the rise of significant patterns in creativity as well as user behavior for brands, marketers and businesses to leverage for the Summer of 2023.

“Summer is a huge opportunity for brands as user behaviors present clear guideposts that brands and marketers can use to create greater engagement and activation. The report highlights travel, food and beverage as well as fashion, as important categories that consumers are looking at, what they intend to do, and how companies can actively participate in enhancing their customers’ experiences and achieving top of mind recall among their target audiences,” explained Life Dawn Cervero, Vertical Lead, TikTok, Philippines.

Filipinos are summer trendsetters

The summer period in the Philippines is a strong catalyst for content inspiration and creation amongst Filipinos as engagement on the platform rises significantly, especially within the travel, food and beverage and fashion categories. As of January 2023, the TikTok Summer Trends and Insights report reveals that users are looking forward to shopping 1.4 times more compared to the year before, during summer sales; while 47% of users have planned their summer holiday purchases at least a month in advance. Data such as these provide brands with greater inspiration to create more targeted marketing strategies and take advantage of the growing consumer uptake.

Traveling is a top priority

According to the report, Filipinos on TikTok are big on summer getaways, with three in four users planning to travel either domestically or internationally, whereas the majority, at 77%, state that they intend to spend quality time with family and friends. As these users prepare for their getaways, content on the TikTok platform is predicted to center on resorts, beach activities, road trips, cultural and sightseeing adventures, and even food hunts.

Brands and businesses have the opportunity to leverage creative content creators who are able to feature specific summer related products, such as travel gear and accessories, as well as create travel itineraries based on these products.

Dressing up, looking good

As the summer period is just around the corner, the report shows Filipinos on TikTok are also putting essential summer fashion items, such as casual wear, swimwear, and other summer-related clothing at the top of their list. According to the report, 81% of TikTok users are planning to buy fashion products and the majority, at 87%, are willing to spend more if there are special summer discounts and promos.

Creators sharing their favorite outfits and indispensable fashion items for their summer getaways create opportunities for fashion brands and businesses to ride on the trend.

Seasonal F&B finds

Wherever their adventures take them, TikTok users are gearing up to relish seasonal food & beverages, with 66% looking forward to buying summer eats and sweets as well as lots of refreshing drinks. A further 68% expressed desire to see new menu items and product launches on the platform during summer.

These include summer staples such as ice cream and halo halo, juices and softdrinks, confectionery and snacks, and many other treats. Road-trips, picnics with family and friends, camping cookouts, and food reviews are just some of the creative content where F&B brands can potentially amass or reinforce a loyal following.

Where entertainment meets commerce

Life explains that TikTok users exhibit deeper interaction and connection with brands, making the platform ideal for powering the entertainment-fueled e-commerce approach, “Shoppertainment”.  A 2021 Global Authenticity Study by Nielsen shows as much as 73% of TikTok’s audience say they feel deeper connections to brands on TikTok than on other apps and sites they use, while 61% say that advertising on TikTok blends seamlessly with the content.

“With TikTok, there are infinite opportunities to convert as brand discovery and community content work together to create a loop that amplifies reach, awareness, and participation. This leads to greater conversion as users are inspired to try products, promote them on the platform, and contribute to sales growth,” Life said.

BLK Cosmetics, a leading local beauty brand

To help Filipinas get ready to have their best sun-kissed summer look, BLK Cosmetics launched a campaign on TikTok for their Soaked, Daydream and Sunkissed product lines. Featuring a very playful way of product use and tapping on summer vibes in their TikTok advertisement, their campaign generated traffic to their online shop with a high click-through and view-through rate.

Coupled with an interactive add-on (Display Card) that lets TikTok users interact with the TikTok advertisement and go directly to the BLK TikTok Shop, this closed-loop shopping experience led to almost 100% sales uplift for the products that were promoted. From this campaign, businesses can learn to implement these creative best practices:

1. Create for a sound-on, full-screen experience
2. Feature product usage to maximize branding
3. Offer a clear call-to-action by using any of TikTok’s Interactive add-ons like a Display Card

“TikTok is really changing the game with its closed-loop entertainment-to-shopping experience that gives brands the ability to immediately realize the effect of their advertising campaigns. We are looking forward to doing more ground-breaking work on TikTok.”- Jacqe Yuengtian-Gutierrez, Co-Founder and CEO of BLK Cosmetics.

Life also encourages brands to leverage TikTok’s business solutions such as TopView ads that appear at the top of one’s For You feed, Branded Hashtag Challenge that raises trends through greater user involvement and Reach & Frequency campaign that lets marketers control the audiences they reach, among others.

Understanding trends and capitalizing on the right solutions, businesses can create more effective marketing campaigns during summer and make sure that their products or services stand out from the competition.